small victories

i`ve decided i love tokyo. especially at meal time. it`s almost like half the city exists to feed people, which i suppose isn`t so far from the truth.

i headed into shinjuku for the proverbial mind blowing experience that everyone had forseen and it pretty much lived up to expectation. the sheer volume of people, neon signage and activity is beyond most westerners imaginations. i find myself thinking ghost in the shell is making more sense, it doesn`t feel so much of a science fiction fantasy as a premonition of what might happen next week.

i headed to shomben kokocho, which roughly means "piss alley" and the lonely planet assured me it wasn`t nearly as daunting as it sounds. its basically a couple of small alleys filled to the rafters with yakitori (stuff on skewers) vendors. and no pictures. damn, there goes my wildcard. i had been counting on the fact most asian restaurants i`d ever been to had pictures of whatever you were ordering.

after a few laps of the block flirting with each unknown entity and thinking "maybe i should just ease myself into this and start off and mcdonalds", i was blessed with a brief moment of overconfidence and just sat down at a cupboard/restaurant and looked hungry. the lady said something to me that i obviously couldn`t understand, and i of course acted like i understood perfectly. "yes, yes", surely she just asked me if i would care for a longneck of beer. bingo. a large bottle of sapporo beer lands right in front of me 2.4 seconds later. this is a piece of cake. "yakitori mixu?" she asks. "yes yes", no stopping me now, i`m on a roll.

i watch my assortment of things on skewers cook, feeling a combination of pride at my cultural surfing, and uneasiness at the apperance of one item in particular that resembles a rodent on a minture wooden spit. don`t ask, you`ll blow your cover. fortunately it turned out to be a couple of unfortunately shaped bits of chicken.

i negotiate the subways and head back to the hotel with a belly of meat and a beer buzz, with a whole 20 mins to spare before lock down. sometimes it`s the small victories that feel important.